An unsettling feeling around Sassaquin Pond

NEW BEDFORD — An uneasiness has settled around Sassaquin Pond after a rabid fox bit two people, including an 8-year-old girl, and a second fox was spotted Friday in the neighborhood, residents said.

CURT BROWN

NEW BEDFORD — An uneasiness has settled around Sassaquin Pond after a rabid fox bit two people, including an 8-year-old girl, and a second fox was spotted Friday in the neighborhood, residents said.

Neighbors said Friday it was quaint to periodically see a fox running through yards the last two weeks and cute when they learned the fox had given birth to three pups.

That lasted until Wednesday when the fox bit a girl and later chased a man into his house and bit him above the right knee, neighbors said.

"It was a gorgeous animal," said Yvette Newcomb, the mother of the girl who was bitten on the palm of her right hand. "It went from being something pretty and interesting to something scary.

"You think it's kind of neat. You don't think it will go after your daughter," she said.

The fox ran from under a car and chased her daughter to the back patio, biting her when she covered her face with her hands, said Newcomb.

"You could just hear this ear-screeching scream and she said 'A fox bit me,'" Newcomb said.

While she took her daughter to St. Luke's Hospital for a series of rabies shots that will continue through next month, the fox bit a neighbor and was put down, according to New Bedford fire Capt. Matt Ostiguy, who killed the fox.

The fox chased a man into his home and bit him through his pants, breaking the skin above the knee, Ostiguy said. Somehow the man managed to get the fox out of his home.

As soon as Ostiguy, who was assisting two animal control officers looking for the fox, spotted its den, he said the animal ran straight at him. He hit it with a 3½-foot wooden stick that his children use for stick ball, killing it with a blow to the head, he said.

"I feel bad," he said. "It's like hitting a small dog. Two people were already bitten so we had to put it down. I wanted that confrontation so it would end."

The fox was maybe 3 feet long from nose to tail and could hide easily in the woods around the pond. "The only time you see them is when they move," he said.

Ostiguy's wife, Lynn, brought their children indoors Wednesday when she heard the fox had bitten two people and her husband and two animal control officers were searching for it, she said.

But their fears are not abated with the killing of the fox as a second fox was seen Friday afternoon, according to the Ostiguys, who wonder if that animal is rabid, as well.

"It's scary," she said.

Manny Maciel, director of city's Animal Control Department, advised Sassaquin residents to watch out for their pets. He also suggested they call his office if they see a fox acting aggressively or confused during the day.

Maciel said he received an email from a Sassaquin resident Tuesday saying she saw a fox running through her yard. "In Sassaquin, you see that all the time," he said, explaining why he did not send a unit to investigate.